“Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…” — David Byrne, Talking Heads I had such fears. I feared that after seeing the work-related fatality rate climb for two years in a row, we were going to see it climb once again, [...]
“You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.” — Barack Obama Forty years ago, on December 3, 1984, the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India released 45 tons of methyl isocyanate. The official toll of immediate deaths is 2,259 people. Estimates of the final death toll ranges but [...]
“If you don’t get better, staying the same is probably not good enough.” — Chris Mullen If a bowler always—always—bowls a perfect 300, they are as good as a bowler can be. If other bowlers also develop that level of skill, they cannot beat a perfect 300. The best they can do is tie. There [...]
“The only thing we have learnt from experience is that we learn nothing from experience.” — Chinua Achebe Back in December 2021, the BLS report showed that for 2020, the Year of the Pandemic, the total number of work-related fatalities in the U.S. was 4,764. That was significantly less than for the year before. The [...]
“Earthquakes don’t kill people. Buildings kill people.” — Wendy Bohon, geologist How many times have you been in a hazard review discussing the potential for a particularly severe event when someone asserts, “Well, I’ve never seen anything like that happen.” As though their proclamation of “never” settles the question. I sometimes ask them how long [...]
“The fact is the media never gets off the interstate unless there’s a major explosion.” — Jim Harrison On Friday, March 24, 2023, shortly before 5 pm local time, an explosion leveled the R.M. Palmer Company chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, killing seven workers. How does a chocolate factory explode? What are the explosive hazards, [...]
“The battle of getting better is never ending.” — Antonio Brown There’s an old joke about someone looking for their keys under a streetlight. A passerby offered to help but after a while, asked, “Are you sure this is where you lost them?” “No, I lost them over there in the park.” “Then why are [...]
“It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Very, very, very often said.” – Daniel D’Addorio The end of one year and the beginning of a new year is often a time of reflection and planning. Reflection on what we did right [...]
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to harvest.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 When October rolls around and plans for Halloween are being made, thoughts often turn to autumn as a time [...]
“Maybe this virus has a silver lining.” — Katherine Plumhoff The Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its workplace safety statistics for the previous year each December. The injury, illness, and fatality statistics for 2020 – The Year of Covid – just came out. The total number of work-related fatalities in 2020 fell to 4,764, over [...]
